february recap

well February flew by so fast... it was over before I knew it! I was quite distracted for the first half of the month planning a surprise party for Jake's 40th birthday!! So that really kept me busy - baking, decorating, scheming, all without him knowing! We shoved everyone in the garage, so when he got back from his bike ride, the first thing he did was open the garage to put his bike away....

 and SURPRISE!!!

It was so much fun to do something like that for him. I could just tell he was shocked, especially by our guests who mad it from afar ... Erika, Shane and Tiersy made it from northern CA, and his Mom and Dad came from Utah. It was so wonderful to have all these people take time out of their day to celebrate with him. And I made a scrapbook of photos, well wishes, notes, etc... from friends and family from all over. It was such a neat gift to give him. So, this was something that kept me quite busy in the first half of February.


So what else did I do for February's resolutions? Well we planted a tree in our front yard like we said we would! Her name is Nelly the Nectarine... lets just hope she get nice and big and produces some great fruit! And hope the dogs don't water it.... if you know what I mean....

And last but not least... we adopted!!! Well, kind of....

I remember being like 13 years old and I really wanted to adopt a manatee. I think a girl in my class had done it and i was soooo jealous. I really wanted one... And if you signed up for some membership then supposedly you adopted one... So i came home, pitched it to my mom, and she said no... i was like this is soooo unfair!! And around the same time, my sister, Erika, wanted to join the Janet Jackson fan club. And it was like $60 or something stupid and you got like a "real" letter from JJ herself... which was clearly a stamped autograph at the bottom. So my mom paid for Erika to become a JJ member, but wouldn't pay for my manatee! This is a true story, and you can tell I'm still annoyed by it... (which, by the way, my mom denies this ever happened...)

So, with that, I'd like to introduce Paddy Doyle....

According to Savethemanatee.org, Paddy Doyle is named by researchers after the famous "fighting Irishman". He bears the distinction of being one of the feistiest manatees in the Blue Springs area.

When I went online to pick one, his name jumped out at me and I knew it was meant to be... as Doyle is Jake's Grandpa's name, and Jake also named his beloved '81 Toyota pick-up after him too  :)
So, hopefully we really did just adopt him and this isn't a scam.... though he still shows up on their website as an "adoptable manatee" so we'll see... haha!

Anyways, February went by without me taking the time to make any entries on here. I kept thinking of it, an then I'd get busy. And several times I thought "maybe I should just quit, this is kinda a silly idea anyways... " And I started to feel like I should just call the whole thing off since I had already slacked off so much.... but then I'd remind myself of that favorite commandment of mine "start where you are". It doesn't have to be perfect. And starting wherever you are is better than not starting at all.

So even though I fell off the wagon a bit.... March is now here and I have a new list of resolutions!